Quote from weewilly:
look at the posts on or around 11/12/03. the p.o.p. was a long near butterfly and a long back wrangle, i.e. 7 legs (insane). the essential concept of the idea, simplified, is to sell near-term vol, delta neutral, against a long dual backspread "wrangle," further out in time.
you can obtain a similar profile much more simply by selling near straddles and buying more strangles further out in time, in some ratio that you would have to determine.
i am not endorsing this position, just restating the gist of it.
wee
I have found out the significant difference between these two strategies, "selling near straddles and buying more strangles further out in time" does not hedge the vega in the front month
